Thousands of fans have arrived at Wembley stadium in London to see Taylor Swift perform for the first time since her shows in Vienna were cancelled after a foiled terror attack.
Despite heightened security concerns, fans have arrived unfazed, wearing sequins, cowboy hats and friendship bracelets. Angelina Morris, 20, said her mum had spent more than 50 hours hand-sewing her outfit and had not thought twice about attending the concert after the attack plot.
“Obviously I feel really bad for the Vienna Swifties, because that was something that was completely out of their control,” said Morris. “But I knew that at Wembley they announced the extra security. So if anything it’s safer than ever.”
Other fans echoed Morris’s sentiments. “There’s so much security and everyone just seems so nice,” said Brodie MacArthur, 23.
The north London venue has tightened security for the five concert nights. Measures included a ban on “Tay-gating”, a trend where ticketless Swifties gather outside concert venues to hear their favourite songs.
Sisters Anna Weston, 25, and Cerys Weston, 27, from Cardiff had been planning to “Tay-gate” Swift’s show on Friday night and said Wembley’s decision to ban gatherings outside the stadium was disappointing but they understood that it was in the public interest.
“I know of people who were going to do it and are not going to do it now,” Cerys said. “People are very good at listening to advice. It’s to keep us safe, and everybody else.”
Yasmin Osten, 25, and Jaime Haycox, 28, who have also attended shows in Atlanta, Nashville, Amsterdam and Edinburgh, said they trusted Wembley had made the correct security decisions.
“We all trust Taylor to keep us safe,” said Haycox. “I think there’s obviously a lot of anxiety around it, but we wouldn’t be here right now if there was any kind of risk.”
Though most fans respected the rules, a few Swifties who had not managed to secure tickets clutched on to signs in the hope of making their way into the stadium. They said the police had not intervened.
The concert is Swift’s first date in the UK since three children were killed in a knife attack at a dance workshop themed around the singer’s music in Southport.
Swift’s three concerts in Vienna were cancelled last week after the arrest of three teenagers by Austrian authorities in connection to an alleged plot to attack one of the singer’s events. The suspects are believed to have been influenced by Islamic State and al-Qaida, according to officials.
Austrian police reported that one of the suspects admitted to planning an attack aimed at causing mass casualties outside the Vienna concert venue, where up to 35,000 people without tickets were expected to gather.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said there was no indication of any threat to the Wembley concerts, adding they would continue to work closely with the venue’s security and “carefully monitor any new information”.
